I am adrift in a sea of templates, CSS and code. Alas, I am making progress on my awesome new improvements to nom! nom! nom! and shall be debuting them soon.

In the meantime, here is a recipe from my upcoming book Have Your Cake and Vegan Too. Out of all 50 recipes, this is definitely in my personal top 5, perhaps even my top 2. It would make a fabulous cake for Valentine’s Day. Your only requirement is that you have to watch the YouTube video below, as it is classic comedy gold, plus the namesake of this mouth-watering treat. If you end up making the cake, you have an obligation to sing the song at least once.

Dad is Great Chocolate Cake

If you’re still freaking out about tofu in dessert do yourself and everyone else a favor and get over it! This loaf cake is delicious and decadent and so very simple. My insanely picky little brother (who lives off of chicken fingers and french fries, no joke) loved it and so I made sure to tease him about the fact that he ate tofu after polishing off his piece. Hehehehe… he never knew.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the milk, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Let sit for a minute. Add the dry to wet in batches, beating until just smooth. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before loosening and transferring to the cooling rack.

While cake is baking, prepare the chocolate cream. In a double boiler over low heat, melt the chocolate until smooth, stirring often. If you don’t have a double boiler, put about 1-2 inches of water in a pot and place a heat-safe bowl over it, making sure the bottom of the bowl is suspended over the water. In the bowl of a food processor or blender, crumble the tofu. Blend for about 30 seconds, until fairly smooth. Add the melted chocolate, brown rice syrup and vanilla and blend until well incorporated, scraping down the bowl or canister as needed. Transfer the cream to a container and chill in fridge for at least 1 hour.

To assemble: Carefully cut the completely cooled cake into thirds using a cake leveler or knife. Spread 1/3 of the chocolate cream on top of the bottom layer and place the middle layer on top. Spread another 1/3 of the cream on that layer then place the top layer on. Spread the final 1/3 on top of the cake. Garnish with crumbled cookies or chocolate shavings.

When I was a kid, I hated anything bitter. Grapefruit was the breakfast antithesis of all that is good in my chubby little world- sugar coated crunchies and custard filled donuts. Now as an adult my palette has changed quite a bit and bitter foods, like tahini and grapefruit, have come to hold a special place in my heart.

This simple, two ingredient smoothie has become a breakfast mainstay and I have to say, it’s truly awesome, even if reveling in the flavor of grapefruit makes me feel like like I’m getting on in years. Meh. Grapefruit’s good for the health, no? The late, great Jack LaLanne would certainly approve.

Segment the grapefruit, being mindful not to put your eye out. Place grapefruit and any additional juice from fruit rinds into a blender. Add the banana, chopped into chunks. Process until smooth. Add sweetener if desired, but know it will debit points from your geriatric street cred. 😉
And now, in other news…

The final touches have been made on the manuscript and it is off to the printers! My upcoming book Have Your Cake and Vegan Too is available for presale on Amazon! It features 50 vegan cake recipes, including some yummy gluten-free options and FULL COLOR PHOTOS! As fun as it is to presale books you’re anticipating, don’t forget that super cool vegan owned stores like Cosmos Vegan Shoppe will be carrying the book once it’s released. Our target release date is April 1st, no joke.

I have been working on a lot of really cool new things for nom! nom! nom! blog. The site is undergoing a complete redesign that will make it much more dynamic. In addition, the content and the ways I share said content will be changing. nom! nom! nom! will be growing from a blog to a very full and robust site. It’s still a couple of weeks out until the new site is up, but know that a change is comin’- and it’s going to be rad!

Or lay-on-the-couch-and-watch-TV-all-day fuel. Or Tofurky-coma-hangover-need-energy-to-tolerate-family-I-only-see-this-time-of-year fuel. Whatevs. It works in any scenario.

While you worry about the food for today, let me worry about the food for tomorrow. Use some of the leftover elements of Thanksgiving that will be lurking in your fridge, destined to mold (ah, we all have such good intentions, don’t we?), and turn them into a hearty, delicious post-Thanksgiving breakfast. Creamy yet chewy steel cut oats join forces with that last little scrap of pumpkin puree, some spices and maple syrup to make an ultimate breakfast. And with leftover cranberries on top? Ooh yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout.

In a pot, bring the water to a boil. Add the oats and lower the temperature to a simmer. Let cook until oats absorb most of the water, about 15 minutes. Add the pumpkin puree, maple syrup and spices and mix well. Let cook until oatmeal is bubbly and cooked to desired consistency.

Serve with a drizzle of maple syrup and some cranberry sauce, if using.

We are a pancake house- primarily because we’re lazy. Waffle irons are hard to clean and I always seem to end up either tearing them or burning them. Yet, the allure of the waffle still remains. Those little indentations to catch syrup and a crisp edge… yum.

Imagine my extreme happiness upon seeing this pan, on sale no less:

I have a pretty strict no-nonstick rule in our house, but for as often as we’ll use this I had to break my own rule. This cute pan turned out adorable little pancakes with a crispy edge and, with the help of some canola non-stick spray, each pancake was easy to pop out of pan. These particular pancakes were the Banana Pecan pancakes (sans pecans) from VWaV.

Served alongside our staple sun-dried tomato tofu scramble, it made for a simply fabulous breakfast with no torn waffles or frustrated crying to speak of.

Drain and press tofu. In a large pan, heat 1 tbsp. oil on medium heat and sautee onion for 5-8 minutes, until translucent. Add the oregano and basil and combine, adding a bit more oil if the mixture begins to stick. Crumble tofu on top and mix well. Add the sun dried tomatoes and carrot and mix to combine. Top with spinach and cover with a lid to wilt. Lower heat to low-medium and let cook for about 5 minutes. Stir to incorporate the wilted spinach and add the corn and olives. Continue to cook on low until heated through.

My main food phases all revolve around tofu. Ha! I bet you thought I’d say chocolate. Nope, good ol’ white and pasty tofu. I swear, I just can’t get enough.

Primarily, I tend to fall in and out of love with tofu ricotta. Well, never completely out of love, but we’ll eat so much, so often that I have to ricotta detox for awhile. I remember the first time I had it, the lovely Michelle from Herbivore had me sample some straight from her fridge and I inwardly panicked. “OMG! Cold, uncooked tofu! I can’t do this, I can’t do this!” I thought was a tofu lover at that point, but baked, stir-fried or sauteed! Of course I wasn’t going to blow my cool in front of some of the hippest vegans around, so I dipped a baby carrot in and braced myself. This stuff is awesome! So, time went on, recipes were adapted and I now have an official tofu ricotta habit.

My new tofu habit:

Okay, so there is nothing new about tofu scramble. But this particular incarnation, with sundried tomatoes, carrots, spinach and nutritional yeast, has been singing my name. I can’t get enough! And we’re polishing off the last bit of jam from last year (And I still haven’t canned anything yet this year- eek!), which is the perfect partner on the side. Breakfast, brunch or brinner- it’s on!

Well, that’s all she wrote. Bye!

Oh.

So…

You’re still reading.

You know I have something to say and so you’re going to wait it out and make me sweat until I break down, huh?

Okay, I give up.

I am officially up to my elbows in development for my next cookbook! YAYAYAYAYAY! I am terribly excited. The topic is still hush-hush at the moment, but I was hoping that I might be able to turn to you, my beloved readers, to see if anyone is interested in doing some recipe testing. I am looking for about 20 testers. If you would like to learn more, please EMAIL ME at nomblog {at} gmail {dot} com. All testers will be honored with their name in the acknowledgments, a free copy of the book, some other exclusive goodies that are in the works and my undying affection. Well, you all have the last part, but only testers get the tangibles! 😉 I’m hoping to get everyone signed up and on the private testing site by the end of the week, so drop me a line, eh?

Hey there! I was featured on a morning show here in Portland, talking about vegan baking in the new year. You can check out the segment here.

*sorry, it won’t let me imbed the video.

Yay, vegan baking!

Oh, and here is the recipe.

You Are My Sunshine Loaf (or Muffins!)

This bread is so bright and sunny you can almost feel the sunshine on your face. If California could be made in the form of a bread, this would be it. With its lovely orange color and citrus notes, along with sweet bursts of raisins, this is a welcome breakfast bread on the grayest days.

In a medium bowl, combine all-purpose flour, white-wheat flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, combine shredded carrots, shredded apple and milk and mix until well-combined. Add oil, orange zest and orange juice. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in two batches until just combined. Gently mix in raisins and walnuts.

Spread batter in the loaf pan and bake for 60 to 65 minutes, until bread is golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a cooling rack until the pan is cool enough to touch, about 40 minutes. Run a knife around the outside of the loaf to separate it from the pan, and turn bread out of the pan to finish cooling on a rack.

If making muffins, bake in greased or lined muffin tins for 22-25 minutes. Follow cooling instructions for loaf.

Store leftover bread (or muffins) covered at room temperature.

Yield: 1 loaf, 10 slices or 12 regular sized muffins

*this recipe is slightly amended from the version in “The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes”. Please see this page for more information.

I’m kind of classic when it comes to eating fruit butters- slathered on a chunk of bread or warm toast is all I need to feel bliss. But that was a very large amount of pumpkin butter to make, regardless of how much I love Dave’s Killer Bread.

In a large bowl combine flour through salt. In another bowl combine the pumpkin butter, milk, water, oil and vanilla. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk to combine. Add more liquid as needed.